Sarkozy Visits Syria
For the first time in years, the French President visits Syria. Three years ago, contacts between the two countries were frozen. Today, French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Damascus, Syria, however, seemingly in an attempt to improve the relationship.
Contacts between the two governments were frozen after the assassination of Lebanon’s former premier Rafiq Hariri. Lebanon and the West believed Syria was behind the murder, causing them to isolate the Assad regime even more than it already was.
Nowadays, however, Syria shows some goodwill every now and then; it is talking to Israel - which was inconceivable only a few years ago - and it has changed its approach to Lebanon. As a result, Sarkozy feel the time may have come to normalizing relations.
Although that may all be true, it has to be kept in mind that Syria is stil one of the worst factors in the region. Syria continues to sponsor terrorism and is improving its relations with Russia these days considerably. Assad visited Russia recently, calling on the Russians to declare a new Cold War against the West. In this Cold War, Assad made clear, Syria will be on Russia’s side.
And that may very well be one of the reasons, aside from the fact that Syria bettered its behavior in some other regards, Sarkozy decided to visit Damascus. After all, ignoring Syria will probably result in Syria drawing closer to Moscow, not to the West. Moscow does not care about minor things like internal democracy, freedom, and so on, nor does it care about right and wrong. It only cares about its own power and influence.
Syria understands this and this is exactly why the Syrians have decided to move towards Russia. Russia may be willing to provide them with weapons they need to improve their army (so they will not be easily defeated by, say, Israel). Furthermore, Russia may give Syria the support it needs in other areas.
The West, on the other hand, does care about a variety of ‘moral’ issues, which is exactly why it cannot do for Syria what Russia can (and will).
